Posted on 13 September 2010

In a week when Manchester United begins another Champions League campaign, we should remember one of the most blinkered decisions ever taken in the history of English football. When Chelsea won their first ever League title in 1955 they were forced to withdraw from the inaugural European Cup competition by the then Football League secretary Alan Hardaker who feared that the new competition would create too much fixture congestion. That shameful decision was not surprising because the British had a history of being suspicious of international football as shown by the fact that none of the home teams entered the World Cup until 20 years after its inception.

Posted on 12 March 2010

Back in the early 1950’s Manchester United made a far sighted decision which had major ramifications for the club at the time and has continued to produce handsome dividends until this very day. Their legendary manager Sir Matt Busby had concluded that rather than spend large sums of money on big name players, better long term results would be produced by recruiting youngsters just out of school and developing them himself. Read the full story